seco

Forms

seco (feminine seca, masculine plural secos, feminine plural secas, comparable, comparative mais seco, superlative o mais seco or sequíssimo, diminutive sequinho, augmentative secão)^[1] Bluteau heads the word seco, ou secco, and secco was a common spelling in the 18th century.^[2][3] Wiktionary also lists the pre-reform spelling sêco.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin siccus (“dry”), written Old Galician-Portuguese seco in the oldest texts.^[4][5][1] Houaiss dates it to the 13th century from Cunha's medieval slips.^[4]

The same Latin word is Galician seco, Spanish seco, Catalan sec, French sec, Italian secco and Romanian sec.^[5][6][1] In Spanish it is found from the earliest texts, and as a personal name in documents from 905.^[7]

De Vaan connects the Latin adjective with a root meaning “to dry up”, seen in sesc (“dry, barren”), असश्चुषी (asaścuṣī, “not drying up”) and sèkti, but notes that it is unclear how such a form would give the Latin word, so that the etymology remains uncertain; an older view joined it to a root “to pour”.^[8] Wiktionary takes it back to *seyk-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantigas de Santa Maria already use the adjective of wood: come madeira mui seca de teito “like very dry roof timber”.^[9] The Crónica Troiana speaks of things that began to burn ca estauã secas “because they were dry”, and of an olive branch that had been dry for days.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712) explains seco first as one of the four qualities of the old natural philosophy, the opposite of moist, and then of anything with little moisture, such as dried figs or a dry mouth.^[2] Morais (1789) adds the figurative senses “curt in speech, harsh in character” and “unmoved by feelings”, and a series of phrases: missa seca, a mass in which the priest does not consecrate;^[10] ama seca, a nurse who does not breastfeed;^[10] em seco, out of the water; and dar em seco, to run aground.^[10]

Modern Portuguese uses the adjective of dried foods (bacalhau seco, carne seca), of a sound without resonance, of an unadorned style, and of a dry wine.^[4][11] In Brazil it also means “eager, longing” (seco por).^[4][12] As a noun it names dry ground, a sandbank left by the ebb in northern Brazil, and, in the plural, dry goods, as in secos e molhados “groceries”.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records; the Cantigas de Santa Maria speak of madeira mui seca.^[4][9]
• c. 1430 – the Horto do Esposo (copied 1390–1437) has seco.^[14]
• 1546 – the feminine sequa in a private letter.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso translates it with Latin aridus.^[16]
• 1712 – Bluteau heads the word seco, ou secco.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais lists missa seca, ama seca and dar em seco.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dry: without water or moisture; enxuto: Deixa a toalha secar até ficar seca.^[4][17][1]
2. Without rain or humidity: um verão seco.^[4][17]
3. Lacking its natural moisture or lubrication: lábios secos.^[4][17]
4. Dried for keeping, of food: figos secos.^[4][17]
5. withered; without vegetation, árido: folhas secas.^[4][1]
6. Very thin, lean.^[4][1]
7. Of a sound, short and without resonance: um estalo seco.^[4][17]
8. (figurative) Curt, cold or brusque in manner; unemotional: Foi muito seco comigo.^[4][17][1]
9. (figurative) Plain, unadorned; direct: um relatório seco.^[4][17]
10. Of wine, with little sugar.^[11][18]
11. (Brazil, informal) Eager, longing for something: estar seco por um café.^[4][12]

Noun

1. A dry place; dry land.^[4][13]
2. (northern Brazil) A sandbank left uncovered at low tide.^[4][13]
3. (in the plural) Dry goods, groceries that are not liquids;^[11] secos e molhados.^[4][11]

Word family

• secura
• sequidão
• secamente

Related words

• secar
• Latin siccus
• Galician seco

Usage notes

Common phrases are a seco “without food” or “with nothing to drink”, em seco “out of the water”, and engolir em seco “to swallow hard, to keep quiet”.^[11][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seco
3. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seco
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. seco
5. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. seco
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. siccus
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 185
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. seco
10. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 382
11. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8347
12. ^ a b Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. seco
13. ^ a b c Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. seco
14. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. seco
15. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. seco
16. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. seco
17. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. seco
18. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. seco